Mosaico: magical arrival

the place of renewal

Once again, I find myself in Amsterdam, at Schiphol Airport. I re-organized the contents of my external hard drive on the flight from Washington - a task I've been meaning to get to for some time. Strange that such a technical-sounding activity could end up being so reflective. With Beirut cooing in my ears, I browsed my folders and happened across some writing simply titled "MOSAICO." In the typical holiday craziness and all of my ensuing travels, I'd forgotten how much time I spent writing about the process of experiencing Lisa Sonora Beam's workshop in Mexico. Since I'm helping Lisa put together a workshop in Kampala in early March, I thought it would be a good time to share.

one of Hacienda Mosaico's many breathing spots

Last New Year's Eve, as Danny and I were embarking on our circumnavigation of Lake Victoria, we stopped off at our friends' Wim and Monique's place in Jinja for the night. It was my last night of internet, and I came across a blog post by Lisa Sonora Beam. I was drawn in by her art - the visual journal technique that she teaches. I saw that she was teaching a workshop in 2010 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I simultaneously thought "I could never create something like that!" and "I must go!"

Almost a full year later, the stars aligned and magically, I'm here.

Hacienda Mosaico is absolutely beautiful. It is a living, breathing manifestation of art – from the winding pathways and strategic little breathing spots, to the frenzy of color and artwork on every surface. It didn’t take much cold weather in Ohio for me to re-appreciate warmth, palm fronds and the living, breathing green of the tropics. Even just feeling the sun and warmth on my skin opened up my heart a bit about moving to Ecuador. It reawakened my desire to stay with the journey. The creation of place is really strong here – there’s a hammock strung up in a little grotto, with hand-blown blue-glass hearts hanging from the tree branches. It’s truly magical, and it woke up the tiny creator inside of me. I have a feeling she’s going to roar tomorrow morning.

looking down the stairs from the studio

It’s also a magical thing to be here with so many energetic women – all searching for something and here to connect with their art. We’re all devouring the thought “what’s next?”…as if instead of creating art in our journals, we’re actually just chipping away - revealing what’s already there on the page.